Google Takes Down Record Number of 'Pirate' Links

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Google took down a record-breaking 5.3 million allegedly infringing links from its search engine in the last week of September.

The entire month of September broke records too, with 21.5 million URL takedown requests.

Two adult entertainment companies both operated by Manwin — RK NetMedia Inc. and Froytal Services Ltd. — were among the top five copyright owners in the past month that requested takedowns over pirated material

Top specified domains involved in the takedown requests in the past month included ZippyShare.com, Dilandau.eu, BeEmp3.com, FilesTube.com and RapidGator.com.

Released as part of Google's transparency report, the data show a dramatic rise in the number of takedown notices filed by copyright holders to Google over the past year.

Between July and October 2012 copyright holders sent Google about 1.8 million link takedown notices a week, increasing to 2.8 million a week in November 2012 and 4.5 million in March.

Google says it regularly receives requests from copyright owners and reporting organizations that represent them to remove search results that link to material that allegedly infringes copyrights. Each request names specific URLs to be removed, and Google list the domain portions of URLs requested to be removed under specified domains.